Advice: Deciphering the good from the bad

Being a college student with full access to the internet and fastcompany.com, my world is constantly flooded with advice of all sorts: how to articles ranging from dating to careers, Cosmo articles on “what you’re doing wrong in your relationship” and last but not least the endless “list” articles that BuzzFeed drowns my Facebook walls with. Society has made advice articles the new go-to for college students, but what if you’re taking the wrong advice?

Working in a career office I am constantly reading career and internship related articles, most of them filled with the “dos” and “don’ts” of job interviewing and resume building tips. Out of the say 10 posts I read a week to share on my office’s social media, I would say at least 2 of them give advice that is very specific and cannot be generalized for all careers.

See, the thing with advice is that you have to know WHAT advice to look for. Resume tips for a student applying for a digital media position should be wildly different than the tips given to a student applying for a public relations position. The most important thing to remember when scanning the web for new job tips and strategies is what field your prospective job is in. This is not to say that reading up on the new trends in digital marketing is going to hurt if you’re a public relations professional; all careers are connected in one way or another, and having knowledge of a field that shares your market can be very beneficial. However, there is a difference between reading an article on accounting career trends and having your entire newsfeed covered in Fast Company articles ranging from marketing to technology because of the excessive time you’ve spent perusing the endless articles on their website.

Practice time management even with advice articles. Don’t waste your “free time” reading on advice that won’t benefit you. Sit down and really evaluate yourself and what goals you have for your career, from there expand your knowledge in the areas that can help you reach those goals.